EMBERLINE
I build websites for small businesses, and write the code that takes the busywork off your hands. Straight answers, fair prices, and no jargon you have to decode.
speed score
on a phone
to stay online
domain and files
Work
Demo sites built to show what a small business site should actually do. Not client projects, and I won't pretend otherwise — but they're real, working, and built to the same standard yours would be. Open them on your phone.
every demo
score
on a phone
while loading
Ridgeline Roofing
Phone number in reach at all times, free-inspection booking, and proof the crew does good work. Built for someone standing in their driveway on a phone.
- Mobile first
- Tap to call
- Fast on 3G
Saltbox Kitchen
A menu that's actually readable on a phone, and an open/closed sign that reads the real clock instead of lying to people at 9pm.
- Live hours
- Menu first
- Tap to book
Hartwell & Vance
Quiet and credible, built to make someone comfortable handing over their family situation. Publishes its fees, which almost no firm does.
- Fees upfront
- Callback form
- Plain English
Kestrel — the fast version
Editorial and quick. An open sign driven by the real clock, the menu a tap away, and the address where someone standing outside can find it.
- Live hours
- Speed 97
- Zero layout shift
Kestrel — the one people remember
The scroll moves through how the coffee is actually made. Same speed as everything else, built for places where the atmosphere is part of what you're selling.
- Scroll-driven
- Speed 93
- 151 KB total
Services
The site is $450, once. After that there are two ways to run it — you host it yourself and owe nothing ever again, or I host it and you can add things as you need them.
Take the files and go
The finished site, the source files, and a written handover. Your domain, your hosting, your accounts. Nothing is held hostage and nothing is owed. Need a change later? $75/hr, whenever you want.
- You own everything
- $0 forever
- Support when you want it
Run it on my setup
Same site, same files, still yours. It lives on my infrastructure, which is what makes the dashboard, booking, and everything below possible — those run on a server somewhere, so they come with hosting.
- Free tier, permanently
- Add what you need
- Cancel any of it
Don't want a tier? Pick individual pieces from the list below instead — most businesses only want one or two of them.
Your own dashboard
A private page showing what your website actually did this month — how many people came, how many called, how many booked, and what they searched to find you. Ask for changes right from it. No password to remember; you get a link by email.
Ask, and it gets done
New hours, a different photo, a price that changed, a typo — type it into your dashboard and it lands with me. Free tier and self-hosted clients email instead; same result, and it's $75/hr either way unless your tier includes the time.
- No ticket system
- No account manager
- You talk to me
Websites for small businesses
A site that loads fast, works on a phone, and tells people what you do and how to reach you. No page builders, no bloated templates, and no monthly fee to keep it online.
- Custom built
- Mobile first
- You own it
- Hosting sorted
Automating the busywork
If you're retyping the same numbers into a spreadsheet every week, that's a script. Pulling data out of PDFs, moving info between two programs that don't talk, custom bots.
- Python
- Spreadsheets
- PDF extraction
- App integrations
A tier is always cheaper than buying the same pieces separately — that's the point of them. Building your own? Three or more take 15% off, five or more take 25%. Nothing is switched on unless you ask for it, and anything can be stopped the same month.
About
I'm Sam. I build websites and automation out of Springfield, Ohio — and I started Emberline because of something I kept noticing about the businesses here.
Good local businesses are being let down by their websites. Places with great reviews and a line out the door have a site that takes ten seconds to load on a phone, a phone number you can't tap, and a copyright line from 2019 telling customers they might be closed. Not because anyone did anything wrong — because nobody ever told them, and the person who built it stopped answering the phone.
What bothers me most is how it gets sold. Fifteen-page proposals that never say a price. Contracts holding a domain hostage so leaving is harder than staying. Charges for things nobody is actually doing. That's the norm, and it works because most owners have no way to check.
So Emberline runs the other way. The price is on this website. Your domain and files are yours from day one. Keeping your site online is free, because hosting a site like this genuinely costs nothing — you pay monthly only for work I'm actually doing, and you can watch it happening in your own dashboard.
You get one person
Not passed between a salesperson, a designer, and an offshore dev team. The person you talk to is the person building it, and the person who answers when something breaks.
Quoted upfront
A fixed number before any work starts. No hourly meter running, and no surprise line items at the end.
The site is yours
Your domain, your files, your accounts. If you ever want to move it or hand it to someone else, nothing is held hostage.
Start a project
Tell me what you need and roughly when. I'll come back with a straight answer on whether I'm the right fit, what it'd cost, and how long it'd take.
contact@getemberline.com
Fastest way to reach me. I answer everything, including "is this even worth doing?"
Automation gigs on Fiverr
Got a one-off script or a spreadsheet problem? Those are easiest to book directly through Fiverr.
Sign in to your dashboard
See what your site did this month and send me changes. Enter your email and you'll get a link — there's no password.
Your dashboard
Sign in to see what your website actually did this month — visits, calls, bookings, and what people searched to find you. No password; you'll get a link by email.
Get your link
Links work once and expire after 15 minutes.
What you'll see
The numbers that matter, in plain English — not a wall of charts you have to interpret.
- Visits
- Calls from the site
- Bookings
- What they searched
- Where they came from
- Request changes
Included from the Starter plan. Not a client yet? See the plans →
See the numbers
No data yet.
No data yet.
No data yet.
Tell me what you need
New hours, a different photo, a price that changed, a typo — type it here and it comes straight to me.
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